East Lansing, Mich. - Don’t make too big of a deal about Michigan State’s change at the starting point guard position.

On the surface, the starting point guard change in Michigan State’s scrappy 76-61 victory over Indiana on Saturday might seem like a major shift, ripe with dramatic storylines.

But all that it did was create a little different mood for the beginning of the game, for this one occasion. And it altered some of the playing groups midway through the game. But don’t confuse this with Mark Dantonio’s decision to go with Connor Cook over Andrew Maxwell in 2013. This wasn’t a major revolution. Not yet. Not unless AJ Hoggard begins to drastically outshine Walker at point guard in the games ahead.

This change, with Hoggard starting at point guard for the first time this year and Tyson Walker coming off the bench for the first time, was all about the opening four minutes of this game, and the opening four minutes of the games ahead. It is not likely to signal a shift in playing time. Not if Tyson Walker keeps playing like he did on Saturday, with 15 points off the bench.

Michigan State struggled in the opening minutes of games during its recent funk. Walker was beginning to take on some psychological damage. This move was done to help Walker as much as it was to help Michigan State get out of the starting blocks better.

Who is chosen to play the final four minutes of games, not the first four, is the more important decision, and that could continue to change back and forth, depending on who is having a good game on each particular night.

Starting jobs probably mean less at Michigan State than at any program in the country.

Izzo often points to the 1999 season in which Morris Peterson came off the bench and became All-Big Ten. Jason Klein started ahead of Peterson that year, as a senior. But, by the time Michigan State lost to Duke in the Final Four that year, Klein was down to 14 minutes.

In 2010, Izzo started Derrick Nix at center. He would often play the first four minutes, and not return to the court for the rest of the half. In the 2010 Final Four, Nix started against Butler and played only five minutes (while Draymond Green came off the bench and played 29).

Look at Malik Hall this year. He has been Michigan State’s best, most consistent player for more than a month, but he remains the sixth man. He lit it up again on Saturday, with a team-high 18 points. And he finally nudged ahead of Hauser in playing time with 25 minutes compared to 16 for Hauser.

Saturday’s change at point guard isn’t likely to be signal the type of shift we saw in 2005 when Izzo abruptly moved freshman Drew Neitzel into the starting lineup and senior Chris Hill was moved to the bench.

It’s not likely to be the type of change we saw in 2018 when Cassius Winston, as a sophomore, overtook senior TumTum Nairn as the starting point guard, and Nairn’s minutes fell to 16 per game while Winston’s grew to 28.

Neitzel and Hill offered stark differences at the point, in terms of skill and consistency. So did Winston and Nairn.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the Hoggard/Walker comparison could remain a foggy and inconsistent variable. They are as different as Neitzel and Hill. But Hoggard and Walker are more up-and-down with their production and efficiency than were Neitzel/Hill or Winston/Nairn.

For better or worse, Izzo knew what he was going to get from Nairn. But that’s not the case with Hoggard and Walker. Not yet, anyway.

On Tuesday, Izzo put both on the bench and went with Max Christie at the point on a whim for three minutes late in the first half.

But Saturday against the Hoosiers, Walker and Hoggard were good. They combined for 29 points, with eight assists and four turnovers.

Hoggard remains the better passer. But Walker’s has the ability to nail the open jump shot, either off the dribble, via a ball screen, or from range off an extra pass. Walker’s perimeter shooting ability had been missing in recent games, but not against the Hoosiers.

Walker hit a massive 3-pointer from the left wing to give Michigan State a 52-44 lead with 12:30 to play, off a drive and kick from Jaden Akins, followed by around-the-horn passing from Hauser and Christie, before the ball landed in Walker’s ready hands.

“Tyson is a really good shooter,” Izzo said. “I really do need him to take some of those shots. I was on him about not shooting. I wanted him to shoot more.

“I have a really good shooting point guard and I have another one that is really good at other things.”

Walker was the Colonial Athletic Association Defensive Player of the Year last year. His defensive impact at Michigan State has been off and on this year, mostly off. But against the Hoosiers, he changed the game with two steals and several deflections. One of which resulted in a pretty breakaway finger roll to give Michigan State a 54-46 lead with 12:00 to play.

Izzo said he’s been waiting for that kind of defensive impact from Walker. And he happened to get it on this day in which Walker’s role changed slightly in terms of when he entered the game, but not how many minutes he played.

Of course, Hoggard’s ejection with 4:00 minutes remaining in the game had something to do with Walker’s 18 minutes of playing time (compared to 21 for Hoggard).

Hoggard received the automatic ejection after picking up his second technical foul.

His first technical foul came in the first half when he bumped shoulders with Indiana’s Miller Kopp during a dead ball situation. Hoggard yapped at Kopp after the collision. Kopp was assessed a technical foul, too.

Then Hoggard picked up his second technical foul, and the automatic ejection that came with it, when he was whistled for taunting the Indiana bench. Indiana head coach Mike Woodson became irate at Hoggard, and stalked after him at mid-court before being restrained.

Hoggard was advised to keep his comments brief about the incident after the game.

“I wouldn’t say anything about the techs,” Hoggard said. “I think i just have to do a better job of controlling my emotions for my team because I need to be out there on the floor.”

Izzo is withholding judgement.

“I just saw a video of it and if the video I saw was correct, I’m flabbergasted,” Izzo said. “If there was more to it, then I’m going to rip AJ, because I’m not going to put up with that.

“I did not see it. I saw some video of it. I couldn’t figure it out. So maybe somebody will call and tell me or maybe we’ll just move on.

“That first one, I thought both guys elbowed each other. That’s worth double technicals? Ed Hightower probably would have jumped in there and said, ‘Hey knock it off. Go back.’ Now it’s double technicals, and let’s check the monitor and see if we should throw the guy out of the country.

“I didn’t like the fact that the first one. I’m not big on guys talking it on the court. I’m big on celebrating it with your teammates and not celebrating with anybody else. So if that happened, then I have my own reprimanding to do because I’m not putting up with that either.

“He’s going to learn from it because I think what happened early got him in the dog house. And trust me, I’ve been in the doghouse before and you usually don’t get out unscathed.”

Michigan State was fortunate that Walker happened to be having a good game when Hoggard was ejected. The shaky version Walker who was pulled from the Wisconsin game might not have been able to protect the Spartans’ 11-point lead in the final four minutes after Hoggard’s ejection.

But on this day, Walker not only protected the lead, he provided daggers. He nailed a step-back 3-pointer that gave Michigan State a 71-57 lead with 3:15 to play, the Spartans’ biggest lead of the game up to that point.

He added another 3-pointer with 1:12 left that gave Michigan State a 73-58 lead.

Izzo would love for one of these two players emerge as the floor general for crunch time. Instead, he is probably going to have to read each game, and the matchups, in deciding who is going to run the offense at winning time. There will be times when he chooses wrong.

Aside from last year’s severe problems at point guard, and possibly 2017 when Winston was a freshman and Nairn was a junior, Izzo has never had to make judgement calls on who his late-game point guard would be. He’s always had a clear-cut quarterback. Things aren’t as clear this year, so far.

Hoggard had what Izzo called the best game of his career in an 86-74 win at Wisconsin on Jan. 21. Then he followed up with no points, two turnovers and played only 16 struggling minutes in a loss at Illinois. Walker played 31 minutes that night.

Then Hoggard bounced back with 12 points and 10 assists during Michigan State’s 83-67 victory over Michigan on Jan. 29.

Then came 4-of-19 shooting from Hoggard in his next three games, including a ragged game against Wisconsin on Tuesday in which Izzo said some Spartan guards need to look to distribute first and look for their shots secondly.

More than skill or talent, the change at point guard might have a bigger effect in terms of personality and comfort level. Maybe Walker needed a little pressure taken off of him.

Walker, a spindly junior transfer from Northwestern, had been on a downward spiral. He played only 16 minutes at Rutgers, and then a season-low 13 against Wisconsin.

Rather than browbeat his slumping court general, Izzo had Walker in his office for several meetings since Tuesday’s loss to Wisconsin. Hoggard came with him.

That’s a great thing about this two-headed monster that Michigan State has at point guard. Hoggard and Walker are close friends. They’ve been friends since they met each other on the East Coast AAU circuit as youngsters. Their fathers became friends when they were elementary players.

When Hoggard learned that Michigan State was interested in Walker as a portal transfer last spring, Hoggard called Walker and helped Izzo recruit him.

“He’s one of my best friends,” Hoggard said. “We walk to practice together and we walk home from practice together. We talked about it (the change in starting point guard duties) and he was cool with it and I was cool with it. We just accepted it and know that we have to bring it whether we’re starting or not starting, being the point guards of the team.”

Izzo had long meetings with Walker and Hoggard prior to the Michigan game, too. And it worked wonders … for one game. This week, Izzo was back at it, looking for a more of a long-term cure.

Hoggard has great confidence. He has a big ego, maybe too much ego sometimes. Izzo and his staff can work with that, while chiseling it down just a bit.

Hoggard seemed to be infused with an extra dose of bravery for this game, which led to some aggressive drives, successful trips to the foul line, and maybe a little too much lip on a couple of occasions. The two technical fouls resulted in the first ejection of his life and the first ejection of a Michigan State basketball player in the Izzo era.

Izzo plans to rein in Hoggard’s woofing a bit, too. But this one time, with Izzo imploring his players to show more passion and toughness, the head coach wasn’t complaining much about seeing his point guard stick his chest out and go Draymond Green on some people a couple of times. This one time.

Izzo wants the toughness, and the confidence, but not the lip. Not in this uniform, for this program.

As for Walker, Izzo wants more bravery from him. When Walker has a bad play or a bad game, he lets it affect him too much.

In his previous four games, Walker had five assists and eight turnovers.

In Hoggard’s previous four games, he had 25 assists and seven turnovers.

It was a no-contest between these two when it comes to on-court decisions in recent games.

“We felt he could get more people involved (with Hoggard starting),” Izzo said.

Hoggard is the better passer of the two, but Walker has the capacity to earn more trust in that department.

Walker is the better shooter of the two, and that’s not going to change this year. Teams play off of Hoggard and dare him to shoot, especially in ball screen situations. That can become a problem for MSU’s offense, as was the case in the second game against Wisconsin.

There will be times when Walker’s pesky hands will serve Michigan State well on defense. And times when the bigger-bodied Hoggard will be the better defensive matchup against teams with big point guards.

So maybe this is the one time in Izzo’s career when he will have two legitimate winners at point guard for March. Neither of them are there yet. But Saturday’s shake-up provided reason to believe that Hoggard is ready to give Michigan State steadier muscle at the outset of games, and Walker may be ready to deliver more of his talents as a substitute.

“He (Walker) played with more energy,” Izzo said. “Play with more energy, have some fun, play better. It’s pretty simple.

“I think this team needed to figure that out. I don’t know that they figured it out yet but they had a real good dose of it today.”